This year, like every other, the magicians of Imardin gather to purge the city of undesirables. Cloaked in the protection of their sorcery, they move with no fear of the vagrants and miscreants who despise them and their work—until one enraged girl, barely more than a child, hurls a stone at the hated invaders . . . and effortlessly penetrates their magical shield. What the Magicians’ Guild has long dreaded has finally come to pass. There is someone outside their ranks who possesses a raw power beyond imagining, an untrained mage who must be found and schooled before she destroys herself and her city with a force she cannot yet control. (Goodreads Summary)

This was a typical, good fantasy book. There was nothing startlingly new about it, but the story was engaging and fast-paced, the characters were likeable or enjoyably not so, and the world was well-defined and interesting.

It has to be said, very little happens in this book in terms of actual plot progression. I felt that, rather than being the first book of a trilogy, this was the first third of a story which just happens to be divided into three separate books. It makes the individual book less satisfying, but I hope that all three are going to cumulatively create one great story.

The Magician’s Guild by Trudi Canavan. Published by Orbit, 2004, pp. 469. Originally published in 2001.

N.B. This is an old review written in 2010 and posted on Goodreads and LibraryThing before I started keeping track of all the books I read here at Old English Rose Reads. I’ve decided to keep copies here so that this remains a complete record of my reading since I started reviewing books for my own pleasure.